Brothers face Belgian trial over Rwandan genocide

BRUSSELS - Belgium has begun prosecuting two Rwandan half-brothers charged under a controversial war crimes law with helping Hutu militias kill some 50,000 people in 1994 and rewarding them with beer after the slaughter.  

Wealthy businessmen Etienne Nzabonimana and Samuel Ndashyikirwa were arrested in the Rwanda genocide case while living in Belgium in 2002.  

Handcuffed and shielded by bullet-proof glass, the suspects wore suits and smiled at photographers as the trial begun in a packed court room. Supporters waved at them as they passed into the bullet-proof box.  

The prosecutors took several hours to read out the 34-page charge sheet, which accused Nzabonimana, 54, and Ndashyikirwa, 43, with helping extremist Hutu militia by lending them vehicles and plying them with beer after the killings.  

Both suspects deny any wrongdoing.  

The trial is the latest in Belgium to concern the ethnic bloodbath that killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the central African state Belgium, a former colonial power on the continent, once administered.  

Prosecutors are resorting to a Belgian law under which they can try war crimes suspects even if they are not Belgian and their crimes were committed abroad.  

The trial is only the second to be held under the law, following a high-profile case in 2001 in which four Rwandans including two nuns were convicted for their role in their country's genocide.  

The trial is to last seven weeks and call on around 180 witnesses -- some of them flown in to Brussels from Rwanda.  

- REUTERS